The Saturday 7

 1. Forewarning: this post is going to be mostly pictures. I'm a little overwhelmed and don't have a lot of time to write. First, 4th of July pics (was that really only 6 days ago??). We made the rounds, starting at Niki's house and ending at Luke's.

Eating and chatting with Great Grandpa

Cap-man

Such a good picture of my mom and Lena!

Picking Niki's wild black raspberries

Ear protection just in case fireworks started going off

Sparklers at Luke's house

We had the perfect view of the Sand Lake fireworks at Luke's. We were far enough away that it wasn't crowded or loud, but we could see the fireworks easily. Win win!

2. Things got real between school and soccer camp prep this week. Soccer camp starts on Monday, so there was lots to do this week. And my classes kicked into high gear. Last week was mostly introductions. This week the real work began. I've pretty much had my computer glued to my lap for the past six days. Annoyingly, my two credit class has been the most labor intensive. It's Intro to Microsoft Word which I already have a working knowledge of. But there are soooo many assignments each week, with extremely detailed instructions. My ENG 102 class has also taken a lot of time. We're researching for a paper that's due at the end of the semester, and because it's kind of an introductory class, the professor wants to see each step of our work along the way. I've been poring through articles and websites, and then proving why the articles I chose are credible. This coming week, I have to make an annotated bibliography. The Health and Wellness class is probably the easiest, although it's also fairly labor intensive. Every week, I have to post to the discussion board, respond to two of my classmates, read a chapter of the textbook, do an online health assessment and write a review of my results, watch a video and write a summary, plus take a quiz. And Social Media Marketing has been surprisingly boring. Lots of reading from the textbook (which the professor wrote and made us buy 🤔), and lots of marketing terms I'm unfamiliar with. Two of the classes are self-paced, meaning there aren't due dates for each assignment, but there are more assignments than there are weeks in the semester, so I feel like I need to be working ahead in those. It's just hard with my kids home. Which I expected it to be. That doesn't mean it's going to stop me from whining. 😆

3. Of course my kids have been laying on the guilt, saying I never do anything with them, and we haven't done anything fun this summer, and all I ever do is work on the computer. It's super great for my emotional state. Although, scrolling through pictures from this week, they're big fat liars. We do stuff all the time!

Homemade car ramps and dirt

Aubrey's birthday party

Puppet shows

"I Draw, You Cook" - this took hours and made an absolutely insane mess. Lena drew the picture, Lucy and I made it with food. My plate is the bottom, Lucy's is the top.

Playdate with Ruby and Casper

Painting - which I did with them for at least an hour

The Pump House

Walking down by the Dam

And the nature trail!

4. They also got to go on a fun adventure with Tristan, Brandy, and Nova yesterday: a movie at the ballpark. They got to sit right on the field and watch Frozen 2 on the big screen. At first, Lena was extremely hesitant about going without me, but we talked through all of her concerns, prayed about it, and kept telling her that the best way to overcome her anxiety is to be brave through it. They ended up having a blast. 

5. I've also been overwhelmed with the housework lately. With everyone home all summer, the amount of dishes, laundry, and general messes seems so insurmountable. We have a chore chart, and the kids are supposed to chip in, but it's a job in itself just to keep on them about it! I feel guilty spending my time away from the computer on housework instead of interacting with my precious offspring. But I can't enjoy my time with them when we're basically living in a den of filth. I really need to put myself on a schedule where I have certain times for schoolwork, certain times for housework, certain times to spend with the kids, and maybe a little leisure time in there as well? I don't envy moms who work from home. This is exhausting.

6. Let me clarify that despite all my complaining, I am enjoying the new responsibilities I've taken on. School is awesome even if it's time consuming, and I love being involved with Soccer Camp at church. They just overlapped inconveniently for a couple weeks. After next week, hopefully things will be smoother sailing. In the meantime, just don't drop by my house unannounced - unless you want to do dishes or fold laundry. (Kidding! I would be mortified if someone actually did that.) 

7. No more pictures. I'm off to work on my Sunday School lesson for tomorrow. (I have looked at it throughout the week, Trevor! I'm not a total slacker! I just need to print stuff off and make sure I'm ready.) And I should probably work on one of my Microsoft Word assignments now that the kids are in bed so I can concentrate. Although I really need to fold a couple loads of laundry. And when was the last time I took a shower? . . .